How To: Rails with SQL Server 2008

Most common database used with Rails is mySQL but if you ever need to use SQL Server, here is a quick how to.

I am using  Windows Vista, SQL Server 2008, Rails 2.2.

1)  Install  activerecord-sqlserver-adapter gem

 > gem install activerecord-sqlserver-adapter

 

2) Create a new Login for this new database (say testuser) using SQL Server Management Studio

3) Create a new database in SQL Server 2008 for your project (say testproject) and choose testuser as Owner

4) Create a new ODBC DNS

Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Data Sources (ODBC)

Add a new ‘User DSN’,  choose SQL Server,  give a name for DSN (say testprojectconn) then configure SQL Server authentication.

5) Now create your rails application as usual.  Configure db connection using database.yml as follows

  adapter: sqlserver
  mode: odbc
  dsn: testprojectconn
  host: localhost
  username: testuser
  password: testpass
  encoding: utf8

Thats it!

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